Israel hides number, condition of Palestinian female prisoners from Gaza on International Women’s Day

Amid Israeli aggression on Gaza and the genocidal war against the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Prisoners' Institutions declared on Thursday that this year has been the bloodiest for Palestinian women over the years of occupation. 

This announcement was made in a joint report by the Palestinian prisoner organizations, including the Prisoners Affairs Authority, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, and the Al-Dameer Foundation for Prisoners and Human Rights, in honor of International Women's Day, which falls on March 8. 

According to the research, since the beginning of the occupation, one of the most well-known and consistent policies has been the targeting of Palestinian women. 

It emphasized that Palestinian women have been subjected to war crimes and grave violations, including extrajudicial executions, systematic arrests, and other horrific violations and sexual assaults. 

The report added that the crimes witnessed by Palestinian women today have been ongoing throughout the decades of occupation, “and the post-October 7th period was not an exceptional phase in terms of the level of horrific crimes we have witnessed and heard through numerous testimonies.” It explained that the difference lies in the intensity and escalation of these crimes, when compared to periods in which the Palestinian arena witnessed uprisings and popular waves. 

The institutions’ report stressed the lack of clear estimation of the number of women who were arrested from Gaza, as some of them were later released, confirming that there are still women who are detained in the Israeli prisons under forced disappearance. 

The prisoners’ institutions pointed out that the number of female prisoners in the Israeli prisons, the majority of whom are held in Damon Prison, reached 60, including two from Gaza. They reiterated the lack of information about the exact number of female prisoners from Gaza in Israeli occupation prisons and detention centers. 

The report presented the most important data about female prisoners held in Israeli occupation prisons until the date of preparing the report as follows: the number of female prisoners is 60, including two prisoners from Gaza. Among the female prisoners, there are three minors, 24 mothers, 12 administrative detainees, 12 students, and 11 prisoners facing diseases and health problems, including two wounded prisoners. 

The report added that the female prisoners are wives of male prisoners, mothers of prisoners, and sisters of those killed, in addition to the presence of a mother of a killed among the female prisoners. 

According to the report, Israel refused to include the three female prisoners who were taken prior to October 7th in the exchange agreements reached in November of last year between it and the Palestinian resistance.  

The report claims that since the offensive against Gaza began, Israel has increased the number of arrests of women, including minors. Women from the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the 1948 occupied territories are among the approximately 240 women who have been arrested. 

In response, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday that since October 7 of last year, 9,000 Palestinian women had died as a result of Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip. 

It added in a statement on the occasion of the International Women’s Day that 75% of the total wounded in Gaza, 72,156, are women while women and children constituted 70% of the 7,000 people missing. 

The statement pointed out that half of the two million displaced people in the Gaza Strip are women.